Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and members
of the punk rock band Pussy Riot could be released early if the Russian
parliament adopts a proposed amnesty bill that would apply to non-violent
offenders, mothers, and prisoners who have already served most of their
sentence.

The bill’s introduction was timed to coincide with
the 20th anniversary
of the adoption of the Russian constitution. If
the bill passes as proposed, human rights advocates said they believe there
would be a chance that Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev could be released under the
amnesty, since they have already served two-thirds of their sentence, so it
would be wrong to leave them behind bars.

Khodorkovsky
and Platon Lebedev, are serving terms in Russian prisons for embezzlement and
money laundering, charges critics claim are politically motivated. Two members
of Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria
Alyokhina, are serving terms for hooliganism after staging an anti-Kremlin
protest song in Moscow’s Church of Christ the Savior.

The head
of the Council for Human Rights (CHR), Mikhail Fedotov, and Human Rights
Commissioner Vladimir Lukin met last week with President Vladimir Putin to
advocate for the amnesty bill.

President Putin met with the head of the Council for Human Rights, Human Rights Commissioner. Source: Konstantin Zavrazhin / RG

The CHR
approved the draft of the broad amnesty bill, which includes early release of
prisoners convicted of non-violent crimes, Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported. President Vladimir Putin
said he agreed with the CHR proposals on the whole, but added that the draft
bill still required some improvement.

"We
are going to improve this document together with the Russian Duma members,”
Putin said, instructing Lukin and Fedotov “to engage in this work in the most
energetic manner."

Putin
added that the amnesty should apply only to those “who have not committed any
serious crimes, or crimes that involved violence against representatives of the
authorities, meaning, first and foremost, representatives of the
law-enforcement agencies."

In
Fedotov’s opinion, if the bill passes, the amnesty will be fairly broad.

"According
to the CHR estimates, we are talking about 100,000 prisoners to be released
early," he said. Lukin’s estimate were more conservative at 50,000 people.

Judging
from the Russian president’s comments, the amnesty bill could apply also to one
female defendant in the Bolotnoye Affair, when demonstrators protest in Moscow
in 2012 on the eve of Putin’s third inauguration.

However, the fate of other
high-profile prisoners, including Khodorkovsky and members of the Pussy Riot
band, remains unclear. The crimes of which they have been convicted are
categorized as non-violent but serious.

It is not
quite clear what Putin had in mind when he spoke about amnesty for people “who
have not committed serious crimes,” and if he meant "serious" in the
conventional sense or as defined by the Penal Code.

A source
in the president’s administration told the Gazeta.Ru news website that the
jailed Pussy Riot members will probably be released under the amnesty as
mothers with underage children.

Fedotov said
he is confident the president agrees with the overall concept of the amnesty
proposed by the rights advocates.

“The
proposals made by members of the CHR focus on people jailed for non-violent
crimes, regardless of how these crimes are categorized in the Penal Code,"
Fedotov told Gazeta.ru. “My understanding is that on the whole, Putin agrees
with our concept."

“But it
is still too early to say what the final version of the amnesty bill will look
like," Fedotov went on to say. "I don't want to raise any false
expectations by making any predictions. It will be better if the actual bill
exceeds our expectations.”

Vladislav
Grib, a member of the Public Chamber, a Kremlin-appointed government body
tasked with monitoring the parliament, explained that the amnesty procedure
applies to categories of the prison population rather than individual convicts,
so the release of these people under amnesty will be a purely judicial
procedure, without any politics involved.

“If Pussy
Riot members fall under the criteria stipulated in the amnesty bill, they will
certainly be released, along with vast numbers of convicts the public has never
heard of.”

Vladimir
Osechkin, a member of the Council for Public Controls in the Russian Duma,
echoes this view. He is confident that the Pussy Riot women will be freed.

"They
fall under a whole number of criteria that should qualify them for release.
This is their first conviction; the crime is not serious; they have been
sentenced to less than five years; and they have underage children," he
said. “Of course, it is hard to be certain because the Russian Duma has yet to
approve the bill - but the likelihood of their release is high."

Osechkin
added that under one of his proposals, the broad amnesty should also rescind
any disciplinary action taken against all prisoners, regardless of whether they
actually qualify for early release.

This means, for example, that convicts
will be freed from punitive confinement within jails, and all similar
disciplinary measures will be rescinded. Under the current law, when these
measures are in place, the convicts cannot appeal for early release; they are
not allowed visits by family members, and they cannot receive any items from
home, he said.

Passing
this version of the bill “would be a really humane step," he said.

The Duma
will begin consideration of the amnesty bill as soon as it is officially
submitted.